Thermal covering for roofs



Sept. 26, 1961 D. c. BRUNTON THERMAL COVERING FOR ROOFS Filed June 19, 1959 v INVENTOR DONALD 0. BRUNTON ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,001,331 THERMAL COVERING FOR ROOFS Donald C. Brunton, Pennington, NJ., assignor to The Pendennis Company Limited, Toronto, Canada, a corporation of Ontario, Canada Filed June 19, 1959, Ser. No. 821,580

2 Claims. (Cl. 50-192) This invention relates to roof covering in the form of shingles, strips, or sheets and more particularly to such covering having heat reflective and heat absorbent areas.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide novel and improved roof covering means arranged to reflect sun heat in the summer and absorb it in the winter. More particularly it is an object of the invention to provide, on roof covering means,areas for heat reflection and other areas for heat absorption.

Another object of the invention resides in the angular relationship ofthe respective reflective and absorptive areas whereby only the latter are generally visible to persons on the ground level.

A further object of this inventionresides in the arrangement of heat insulating material on the under surface of those portions of the roof covering which are reflective whereby the heat of the summer sun is better resisted and heat loss during the winter is materially reduced.

More specifically it is an important further object of the invention to arrange roofing units each with at least one reflecting and one heat absorptive area wherein the former is soangularly disposed as to reflect most of the suns heat falling thereon in the summer and the latter is so disposed as to absorb most of the suns heat falling thereon in the winter. I

Another and further important object comprises the arrangement of the roofing unit reflective area at such an angle to the horizontal as to drain properly while presenting the least area to the vision of these below the roof level while the heat absorptive area is presented with its plane nearly vertical and colored pleasingly to present an attractive roof appearance to those persons viewing it from near ground level.

Other and further objects and features of the invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art upon a consideration of the following specification and the accompanying drawings wherein are disclosedembodiments of the invention with the understanding that such changes and modifications may be made therein as fall within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In said drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the upper part of a houseor similar building equipped with a gable roof fitted with roof covering constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an end elevation of a roofing unit, the solid lines showing a representative form and the dotted lines representing limiting positions for the reflective and absorptive areas to adapt them for roofs of different pitches;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of a roof covering unit illustrating in detail the reflective and absorptive areas;

FIGURE 4 is an end elevation of a covering unit showing the use of insulation beneath the reflective area; and

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary end elevation of a roof equipped with covering units of the present invention showing one representative overlapping arrangement.

All of the better known roof covering materials, which are suitably weather resistant, are relatively highly heat absorptive so that a large percentage of the suns rays Hce striking them will be absorbed, the heat transmitted and then radiated and otherwise transferred to the interior of the dwelling or other building unless resort is had to relatively thick insulation, either directly beneath the roofing material, between the rafters, or as a ceiling material. All of these insulating materials are relatively expensive and costly to apply and many are subject to deterioration due to the presence of moisture resulting from condensation, many harbor insects andother vermin, some are not fire resistant, while many are difiicult to finish where they are used as the principal wall covering for the interior of an attic or upper story.

Reflective types of roofing are known but have been used mainly for commercial and industrial buildings, barns, and the like for such roofs made of plain metal surfaces such as polished aluminum shine like a mirror and the effects are objectionable to neighbors and are even a hazard where the reflected light falls on a highway and may dangerous-1y blind drivers. It is the intent of the present invention to make use of the reflective value of suitable surfaces such as polished aluminum to prevent the absorption of any great quantity of heat from the sun while at the same time removing the aboveenumerated objectionable features and making the roof covering available aud suitable for residential purposes.

In its simplest form the invention makes use of sheet metal roofing units which provide relatively flat surfaces tilted only a few degrees from the horizontal and highly polished for reflecting the suns rays, particularly when it is high in the sky as during the summer season, and surfaces at a large angle to the horizontal which form the part of the roofing normally visible from the ground level, and these latter are of a low order of reflectivity achieved by darkening the color, roughening or covering the surface, or a combination of the two. Thus the shiny surfaces will reflect the maximum of the suns heat in the summer time while those surfaces which approach the vertical may be colored in any desired manner with permanent coloring such as by anodizing, if the metal is aluminum, whereby, when observed from the ground, they constitute the whole visible roof area and may be made as ornamental as desired' These latter also provide for a reasonable heat absorption in the winter when the sun is low in the sky, and particularly in those areas properly oriented to be shone upon by the sun under those circumstances.

Reference should now be hadto the drawings for a better understanding of the invention. In these drawings FIGURE 1 illustrates an ordinary gable roof where the pitch of the two sloping surfaces is approximately 20 degrees to the horizontal. Such roofs are commonly built with pitches varying from 10 degrees to 50 degrees or more The roof covering units as use-d thereon are indicated at 12 and may be in the form of individual shingles, shingle strips containing from three to ten or more integrated units, or may be continuous lengths running for many feet transversely of the roof and of one or more steps in height. The inventive concept is wholly independent of the mechanical structural features of the shingles or other roof covering, except as to the relationship of the two principal areas thereof as better seen in FIGURE 5, the one numbered 14 being substantially horizontal and the one numbered 15 being more nearly vertical with appropriate lengths and heights to eflect this result when mounted. The area 14 may be termed the reflective area while the area 15 is the colored'or heat absorptive area.

If the roof covering is made in the form of individual shingles or multishingle units or strips, the construction might be as illustrated representatively in FIGURE 3, where the relatively flat area 1'4- shown as substantially horizontal is contiguous to the nearly vertical flat area 3 15 which is. nonreflective or absorptive, the junction being indicated by the ridge or sharp angle 16.

The angular relationship between these two relatively plane areas may vary considerably in order to adapt the shingles; {or use. on roofs of different pitches. As noted above, these pitches. may vary from as little as 10 degrees to much. as. 50; degrees or more. It is the intent of this invention that the area 14, known as the reflective area, should have itsv surface-slope varied from the hori- ZOntali as shown by the, solid line 17 in FIGURE 2, which is an edge view, to. 10 degrees slope in the drainage direction to the position indicated by dotted lines 17 The solid lines 18, indicating the edge of the absorptive area '15, show it, arranged vertically, whereas the dotted lines 18 show its preferred maximum negative inclination of 30, degrees from the vertical, and dotted lines 18. show its preferred positive maximum inclination of: 3,0 degrees from the vertical.

Reverting to FIGURE 3, it will be seen that in order to complete a single shingle, a flap or tab 20 is integral with the-opposite edge of the reflective area forming a valley. 21 between the two with an angular relationship such that the flap 20. rests on the roof sheathing when areas 14. and 15 have their respective desired angles as mentioned above. The lower edge of the area 15 may be turned outwardly as shown at 24 to rest on the rearmost; portion of the reflective surface of the next lower shingle as seen in FIGURE where the tabs are illustrated as, secured down to the roof by nailing as at 22. Clearly, one flapv or tab 20. and one lower edge area are adequate also for multiple shingle units.

Since the true inventive concept in the present roof covering resides in the character and disposition of the reflective and nonreflective surfaces and not in the mechanical construction, it will 'be obvious that the invention can'be applied to many other forms of metal coverings oreven to coverings which are nonmetallic and veneered with a thin metallic coating on the reflective surface. Also resort can behad to. various known forms of interlocks; for the different edges of the covering units, both where the upper ones meet the ones below to provide a weather-tight and wind-proofijoint and where shingles abut each other side by side.

lnFlG'URE 4 one of the roof covering units is shown in end elevation, and at 26 on the undersurface of the reflective area 14 is illustrated a heavy coating of suitable heat insulating material which may augment the reflective eliect to reduce the amount of heat entering the building during the summer time when the sun is high. Whether .or not the area behind the absorptive surface 15 is insulated will depend on the wishes of the user. A suflioiently thin layer of insulation in this area as shown at 27 willnot greatly retard the entrance of high temperature heat such as wouldbe effected by the sun striking the. surface relatively normally in the early spring and late fall, but this insulation would be quite helpful in many circum tances. n Prevent ng a everse ew o heat at a much lower temperature during the dark hours of the day.

It will be appreciated that a number of different size roofing units will have tobe provided to cover the full range of roof pitches, for these require diiferent ratios or widths, measured in: the direction of the slope of the roof, between the relatively hqrizontaland the relatively vertical surfaces. For instance, with a lQ-degree pitch, a horizontal surface five inches wide requires only a heigh tof 0.88 inch for the vertical surface, while at the maximum roof pitch of 50. degrees, the five-inch horizontal requires a six-inch vertical surface. It will be appreci ed tha th slop f the urface 4 may y from-zero to around the optimum 10,-degree amount previously referred to in order to efiect suitable drainage, but any angle greater than 1t) degrees would be likely. to cause severe reflections down near the ground level in areas not too far dista t from the roof. Whether or not the positive or negative angle is used for the vertical PQ iQQ ha l ttle bear g n he-fiunctio in h e u rat er on he appea ance o the finished roof. Obvious: ly the height and width of the areas mentioned above are only representative. Particularly where the roof pitch is s eep ach 0i hese dimensions would most likely be materially reduced and hence the number of rows of units laid increasedcorrespondingly. This would not sub..- stantially change the amount; of material required but would materially effect the final appearance of the roof. Of course, alternate, .0 Q J iOIIaI rows may differ in size to lend variety to the appearance of the completed roof.

1. A pitched roof having sheathing and a series of roofing material units thereon arranged in horizontal rows and o r app n r lat onship pitch s ereof, each of said units including an exposed area having high light an h refi eti e chanaeter st-i an exten o the or e o hor zon ally. an exp d li ht and heat absorP' i area e e a d int ra with a first area and e t ndin of the r erqf e ti ally, sai fi s area having an t a ap xte din up dly f om its pp g t n nd su d o t e r o sheath an he. lower e ge o h s co d a ea havin a fl p resting on the horizontal area of the unit below it adjacent its junction with its secured flap.

2. A roof as defined in claim 1 in which each unit is of integral constmction, the reflective area tilting down? wardly fordrainage as much as 10", and the absorptive area deviating; from the vertical in either direction as much as 30".

n- 19 8 Harris 1841.20, 1953 

